Month 8: DirectX & Software Architecture

I just got done with my eight month here at Full Sail. This month I had DirectX and Software Architecture. DirectX was hard but we learned a great deal. In Software Arch we began looking at whole systems and how to plan out our code. It seems as though the heat is being turned up from here on out and now the classes will get really intense.


In DirectX we learned to use the computer’s devices directly. Wendy taught us to implement sound, graphics and input. We learned how to get input from controllers, render mesh and terrain with lighting using shaders. The class was pretty difficult compared to our past classes but in turn we learned a lot more from the mistakes we made. Remembering physics and linear algebra will help out a lot. The midterm and finals are difficult but it’s important not to get discouraged. I came to realize that some of the things I was doing wrong came from the same mistakes so I learned to check a few things first whenever something went awry. Now I always ask myself “Is the syntax right?” “Is it spelled correctly?” “Is it being called?” and “What is it filled with? (Garbage? Null?)” whenever I start debugging.

In Software Arch Frosty taught us design patterns and how to make UML diagrams. We used Visual Paradigm to make UML diagrams such as class, sequence and case. We also learned design patterns like Singleton, Composite and Factory Method. We implemented these in lab by applying them to game code. We also learned about the different ways of developing a game like Waterfall, eXtreme and SCRUM.